“Oy vey mame ikh lib a sheyn yingl” Performed by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

Oy vey mame ikh lib a sheyn yingl / Oh, Mother, I Love a Beautiful Boy
Sung by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman (BSG)
Recorded at the Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins, West Virginia, 1990.

Commentary by Itzik Gottesman

During the summer of 1990 Yiddish singer and teacher Ethel Raim had been asked to teach Yiddish song for “vocal week” at the Augusta Heritage Center, in West Virginia.  She asked to bring Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, who turned 70 that summer, with her to co-teach.

Ethel Raim (left) and Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

At the end of the “Vocal Week” the much larger Augusta Heritage Folk Festival took place on the same grounds and BSG sang this song from the stage at that occasion.

This song was learned by BSG in the United States after her arrival in 1951. It can be heard on a record sung by Feigele Panitz. It is also sung on a field recording by the singer and actress Diana Blumenfeld in the Stonehill Jewish Song Collection, curated online by Miriam Isaacs for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance. Blumenfeld sings an additional third verse.

Thanks to Ethel Raim for this week’s post. 

TRANSLITERATION

Oy vey mame ikh lib a sheyn yingl.
Sheyn iz er vi di gantse velt.
Far zan sheynkeyt iz er ba mir eyner.
Un durkh im vert mayn harts farbrent.

Vifl tsures hob ikh zikh ungelitn.
Biz ikh hob gekent im derkenen.
Takhn trern, oy, ti ikh fargisn,
ven ikh ti zikh un im dermanen.

Kh’vel shoyn mer keyn libe nisht shpiln.
Ikh vel shoyn mer inter zayn fentster nisht shteyn.
Es zol zan harts azoy vi mans tsepiket vern,
vet er mer azoy groys bay zikh nisht zan.

TRANSLATION

Oh mother I’m in love with a handsome boy.
He’s as beautiful as the whole world.
Because of his beauty he is my one and only.
and for him my heart burns.

How many troubles had I suffered,
until I could recognize him for what he was.
Rivers of tears, oy, do I spill,
when I think of him.

I will no longer love him,
I will no longer stand under his window.
Let his heart break like mine;
then he will not be so conceited.